Happy Holidays!

Ho Ho Ho! Now here's a simple phrase that hardly needs translation.
Our wishes of the best Holidays ever and a great 2012! See you next year!

And here is our Video Christmas Card to you. Enjoy!
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One of many stories...

On Dayton Children's website, a success story was told about a child named Benjamin (Overcoming Barriers - Benjamin Hernandez). Diagnosed with having too much water in his brain at birth, Benjamin developed a number of health issues that since then have been addressed by multiple specialists at Dayton Children's hospital and his parents, Avenego and Emma Hernandez, have always been able to get him the medical care he needs thanks to interpreters.

Dayton Children's is a client of Vocalink and one of the interpreters who have consistently worked with the hospital in this particular case is Fern Leland. An independent contractor working with Vocalink, Leland illustrates the fundamental role interpreters play in getting medical care to families with limited or no knowledge of English. We asked Leland to share some of her thoughts with us, in the wake of this article in the Dayton Children's website. These are her words:

I had not realized how many people are not able to communicate with medical staff and how important that communication is to the patient's well being (before I started working as an interpreter). It is challenging using your mind going back and forth from one language to another and at the end of many a day I go home mentally exhausted and at the same time energized. It has changed my life. Of all the different jobs that I have had this is my favorite one. For me it is very rewarding to be able to help patients and their families in their time of need with medical staff.

(Interpreting is not a) job for everyone as it is often fast paced, and can be difficult however it is never boring. Interpreters need to have a specialized vocabulary and be familiar with colloquial terms and sayings in both languages. As an interpreter you have to be capable of putting your emotions aside, interpret everything you hear, refrain from giving advice or expressing your opinions, be able to accurately interpret from one language to another, and respect the privacy and confidentiality of each interaction.

In emotional situations (like Benjamin's) it is easy to forget your impartiality and go into an advocate/social worker mode but I find it helps me if I visualize putting my emotions into a box and closing the top. Later when I am not interpreting I can let my emotions come to the surface. There are times when you have to give very bad news and other times when you get to give good news. In my experience there is more good news than bad.

It is extremely important for non English speaking residents to have interpreting services available to them. In addition to interpreting the words, interpreters must be able to relay concepts and ideas and be sensitive to cultural issues. If individuals do not have an interpreter present there can be important information that is not communicated or is delivered incorrectly and the results in many situations could be detrimental to that individual.

Benjamin, as part of its biblical origin, also means "last born" or "youngest son". Like Fern Leland, many independent contractors working with Vocalink interpret for many other Benjamins and their families, at Dayton Children's and other medical facilities across Ohio and beyond. Dayton Children's placed the story of Benjamin Hernandez in their "Success Stories" section and we are pleased to celebrate this and many other stories as part of our continued success in helping to break barriers through language, interpreting the spoken word with clarity.
Anyhow. Anywhere.

Around the World: Thanksgiving [USA; Puerto Rico]

"Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism.

Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. (...) (1) (continue reading)

Thanksgiving is also celebrated in Canada (2nd Monday in October), Liberia (1st Thursday in November), Norfolk Island (last Wednesday in November) and Puerto Rico (4th Thursday in November, as in the US).

Source:
(1) Thanksgiving in Encyclopædia Britannica, primary contributor: David J. Silverman

Around the World: Halloween [USA; Ireland; Canada]

Halloween, one of the world's oldest holidays, is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe. The autumn rite is commemorated in the United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages. (1)

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which means "end of summer", the Celtic New year. (1)

Not everybody joining in the Samhain celebrations was necessarily human ... or of our world. The night from October 31st to November 1st was a time "between years" to the Celts. And during this time the borders between our world and the otherworld(s) were flexible and open. (2)

Sources:

(1) The origin of Halloween lies in Celtic Ireland in Irish Genealogy Toolkit :)

(2) Samhain - A Very Irish Feast, The Roots of Halloween in Celtic Ireland in Go Ireland ;)

A way of life.

It takes more than having two hands to be a good pianist.
It takes more than knowing two languages to be a good translator or interpreter.

Here is a taste of an interesting article about interpreters, published on PsychologyToday by François Grosjean on his blog Life as a Bilingual, where you can find many interesting posts on the subject.

"Have you ever sat down in an interpreter's booth, put on the headphones and tried to interpret the incoming speech? I did when I was a young and rather naive student who thought that being bilingual meant one could interpret simultaneously. No sooner had I started that problems arrived. As I was outputting the first sentence, the second one was already coming in but I hadn't paid enough attention to it. I remembered its beginning but not its ending. Very quickly I fell behind and I just couldn't say anything more after a few minutes!
Many years later I still remember the scene vividly and because of it, but also because of my own research on the perception and production of speech, I have the utmost respect for interpreters and the training they have to go through to do their job well." (...) (continue reading)

References
Valdés, Guadalupe (2003). Expanding Definitions of Giftedness: The Case of Young Interpreters from Immigrant Communities. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Grosjean, François. Special bilinguals. Chapter 13 of Grosjean, François (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.